Rota offers only journalism class in CNMI

SONGSONG, Rota—Former Pacific News Center reporter Joycelyn Atalig is almost singlehandedly trying to revive interest in learning journalism in the Commonwealth.

The Dr. Rita Hocog Inos Jr./Sr. High School teacher is in her second year teaching a journalism elective, which currently stands as the only journalism class in the CNMI and that includes Saipan and Tinian.

Through Jungle Journals, Atalig and her students report about what’s happening in their small community that becomes more critical since the major media companies on Saipan report little to no news about Rota.

“It’s kind of a struggle here, but there are a lot of stories and nobody’s reporting on anything. There are a lot of stories that my students are able to cover. The most recent I think and the one that I’m most proud of is their coverage [of] the elections. They interviewed our…mayor[-elect], our first female youngest mayor of Rota. They also interviewed our senators and [representatives], like all the people that you know, all the candidates that ran this year.”

While Jungle Journals isn’t printed yet, Atalig said she plans to publish the articles online soon.

“It’s kind of difficult for us because my students transition out every year. So it’s like I’m retraining and retraining. My first year, I got like 20 students and then seven this year.”

Dr. Rita Hocog Inos Jr./Sr. High School teacher Jocelyn Atalig and her journalism class pose with presenters of the Minagahet Ellet survey prepared by the Northern Marianas Humanities Council last Thursday. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

She believes the journalism class and last week’s Minagahet-Ellet: Reporting the Truth in the NMI Workshop by the Northern Marianas Humanities Council gave her students other career options.

“It’s great exposure for the students because, you know, being here on Rota we don’t really have a personal attachment to [news] like if we have our own Rota news company. So, being kind of detached from Saipan Tribune, KUAM, or media on Saipan and media [in] Guam, I guess it showed them a different career path as opposed to the things that they will usually pursue coming from Rota.”

One of Atalig’s students, Abriette Manglona, said the journalism class has so far been an eyeopener.

“It’s been a good experience. I was never introduced to journalism. I know it’s like oh, that’s the news that was a mystery to me a lot. Like I never knew what an inverted pyramid was. I didn’t know what beats were and I’m thinking like music.”

Manglona said she learned about the journalism class through her former classmates.

“I heard a lot about it from my classmates and my peers saying it’s so fun. …So I just decided to give it a shot. And I wouldn’t say I’m super interested, but it sparked an interest and who knows maybe I’ll explore that later when I graduate.”

On the Minagahet-Ellet: Reporting the Truth in the NMI Workshop and presentation that dealt with the results of a survey on the CNMI’s news media, Manglona said it was the most engagement she’s seen from her classmates.

“I was really interested. I mean, you don’t really see that in presentations when people come from off-island. A lot of the students don’t really pay attention but in this presentation, I noticed that a lot of people were or a lot of the students were really engaged and they were really interested.”

What piqued their curiosity the most, she thinks, was that one of the presenters was KUAM CNMI chief correspondent Thomas Manglona, who is an alumnus of Dr. Rita Hocog Inos Jr./Sr. High School.

Humanities Council program coordinator Naomi Tudela said the Minagahet-Ellet: Reporting the Truth in the NMI Workshop concluded the events aligned with the Democracy and the Informed Citizen program.

“It essentially aimed to raise media literacy in our communities and support our local journalists by allowing them to engage one another through a community survey, forums, and workshops such as this one for the students on Rota. With these interactive events, we get to connect people and explore the role of the humanities in creating a more informed citizenry and a stronger democracy,” she said.

As the only school in the CNMI that offers a class on journalism, Tudela said it was an honor to coordinate the workshop for Atalig’s class.

“They were able meet their local journalists who shared their stories, answered the students’ questions, and taught them about good reporting. Hopefully this event will spark an interest in a journalism career one day. The students at RHI were incredible, engaged, and truly impressive.”